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General Climbing Discussion

Topic Date User

lead vs second grade gap 24-Jun-2011 At 11:05:48 AM Sabu

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To answer your question: fear. I think many people have (and rightfully so) a fear of falling, which limits their willingness to jump on hard routes which if they failed at would result in a fall that may or may not be nasty (who wants to find out right?!). This is completely normal and I think it is more pronounced in some and less pronounced in others for many reasons.

I think this is primarily the case with trad leading given trad is a completely different dimension in terms of pushing grades. For me I'm very happy to jump onto a hard sport route or top rope something for the pure fun of playing on it. However I approach trad with a completely different mindset; finishing the climbing safely. Therefore I consider a lot more factors before jumping on the sharp end and this results in a reduction of the grades i'm happy to attempt. For me when I'm climbing strong I think the difference is about 1-2 grades but seeing as i primarily lead i often never find out my limit.